Photo by Helen Enenfé
FUTURE PROGRAMME
15 October 2022 18:00
A DIALOGUE ON BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY
Dr. David Brazier & Dr. Yaya De Andrade
David and Yaya will talk about their personal journeys with Buddhist psychology and about their current teaching programme. What does it mean, to study Buddhist psychology? How does Buddhist psychology affect the way that one encounters others, how one helps, befriends, does psychotherapy, or lives one's day to day life? It could be said that Buddhist practice aims to take one to enlightenment while Buddhist psychology explains all the so human reasons why few of us get there. Buddhists have been studying the human mind for two and a half millennia and the fruits of these studies are certainly worth savouring. Yaya and David will share personal experience and ideas and respond to questions from the floor.
The dialogue is at 18:00. There is 30 minutes meditation starting at 17:30 optional.
Sponsored by the Heartland Sangha
https://www.heartlandzen.orgZoom:
https://bit.ly/3UuxCXr22-23rd October 2022
"ENCOUNTER & PATH"
OCTOBER BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY WEEKEND
Online
Theme:
Therapy as a Spiritual Path for Client & for Therapist. A presentation of the application of Buddhist psychology in a number of dimensions; a forum in which to reflect upon the spiritual path from a psychological point of view and the psychological work from a spiritual perspective.
Content:
talks, seminars, master class demonstration, groupwork, "Dharma à Deux", case
presentation and discussion. Theoretical material will be presented and there will also be experiential workshops so participants should be willing to
share material about personal life and agree to respect the
confidentiality of others.
Suitable for: The weekend is open to anybody interested both in understanding their own life and relationships better and in the therapeutic process and how this relates to the spiritual path in a Buddhist approach.
Students enrolled on the BP Diploma programme will be invited free of charge.
Tickets <
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/globalsangha>
8-11th December 2022
"HEALING THE HEART"
SHAKYAMUNI ENLIGHTENMENT RETREAT
Online
On 8th December we celebrate the enlightenment of Shakyamuni Buddha. On the three days following we shall have periods of practice and presentations of applications of Dharma faith and practice. The theme of "Healing the Heart" invites us to consider both the transformation of the practitioner on the bodhisattva path and also the need for healing of our world and our planet.
============================================================
DHARMA THERAPY -:- THERAPY DHARMA
The Dharma is the teaching of Buddha, both in the sense of the doctrines he pronounced and in the example of his life, and even, beyond that, the liberating spirit of wisdom and compassion that is the real definition of Buddhahood. Therapy is the psychological and spiritual accompaniment of a person through a period of travail - the healing of distress by psychological means.
What is the relationship between these two? Are they, in fact, two? Or are they two manifestations of a single entity? Etymologically, the two words are connected. the DHaR of Dharma and the THeR of therapy are from a single root. They both refer to holding and healing. It is the Dharma that holds and heals us and that is therapy.
The Buddhist teachings heal the heart. The Dharma has been transmitted from heart to heart, generally by verbal encounter. When we read the stories of the Buddhist masters and their disciples down the ages, it is quite rare to find somebody enlightened while alone in meditation. Almost invariably people are awakened in the course of an encounter with a teacher, and an interpersonal encounter that changes a life in a wholesome way is, surely, a therapy.
Dharma is the way of the East and therapy is a way of the West, but, perhaps, they are just two sides of a single coin. Certainly, the experience of doing the Buddhist psychology programme suggests that following the psychological exercises in the programme is a fine way to enter into the Dharma path.
Yet, the East-West divide, too, may be less than we think. The term therapy derives from the communities in Egypt from about 200BCE onwards called Therapeutae. These people were almost certainly at least influenced by Buddhism and the missionary efforts of King Ashoka and may, in fact, have actually been Buddhists. Egypt, and especially Alexandria, was, at that time, the hub of the intellectual world and the Ptolemaic pharaohs had the ambition to bring to Alexandria all the wisdom of all the world.
The Therapeutae merged Jewish and Buddhist wisdom and this may also be one of the sources of what became Christianity. In any case, the divergence of Dharma and therapy may simply be an artefact of how culture has evolved in different countries. Many people nowadays see them as different, even conflicting, approaches, but I find a basic harmony. Deep listening is a healing art for East and West and Buddha was the master.
Through our Dharma practice we hope to bring peace of heart and liberation to all beings. This is the greatest therapy.
============================================================
AFRICA
